RLDB: Robust Local Difference Binary Descriptor with Integrated Learning-based Optimization

Local binary descriptors are well-suited for many real-time and/or large-scale computer vision applications, while their low computational complexity is usually accompanied by the limitation of performance. In this paper, we propose a new optimization framework, RLDB (Robust-LDB), to improve a typical region-based binary descriptor LDB (local difference binary) and maintain its computational simplicity. RLDB extends the multi-feature strategy of LDB and applies a more complete region-comparing configuration. A cascade bit selection method is utilized to select the more representative patterns from massive comparison pairs and an online learning strategy further optimizes descriptor for each specific patch separately. They both incorporate LDP (linear discriminant projections) principle to jointly guarantee the robustness and distinctiveness of the features from various scales. Experimental results demonstrate that this integrated learning framework significantly enhances LDB. The improved descriptor achieves a performance comparable to floating-point descriptors on many benchmarks and retains a high computing speed similar to most binary descriptors, which better satisfies the demands of applications.